Bal Vikas Convention

Two-day convention of Balvikas 'Alumni' and Group 3 students was kicked off at Kulwant Hall this morning.

• Four Balvikas alumni and AIP, Mr Srinivasan spoke on Saturday ( morning session). All dwelt upon the theme, ' Balvikas - Pathways to Excellence'. 

• Also on Sunday morning, we had few 'alumni' come and share their experiences. Speakers included a senior IAS officer, member of Nobel winning lab, corporate executives, et al.

Every talk was a proof of the immense impact Balvikas program had on them.

Balvikas is truly 'God's gift to humanity'. And we have a role to play, to get as many children the fortune of going through it. The model has evolved into a well-oiled process now and as such easy to implement the template. With couple of hours, every week, that is the minimum we can do for the future of children. Happy childhood and a matured outlook in the later years can be hugely beneficial.

It was a pleasant surprise to see some of the senior, dedicated members of Swami's students, working in Parthi, were Balvikas alumni. 

Great to know they are working on a Plan-2015

Let every child be on Balvikas... Sai Bless

Taare Zameen Par

Had written a post after watching 3 Idiots!! Movie ! Felt very good... Had liked the book by Chetan Bhagat immensely too.

Watching the second half of 'Taare Zameen Par'. Kudos to Amir Khan, for making such a great movie.

Painting competetion now on @ amphitheater !

Drawing & painting remain areas where I just could not exhibit any telent at all.... But remains 'jack of all, master of one' ! But I think parenting remains an art very close to my heart.

Hope all parents & all elders watch this superb movie & be better human beings, identify Divinity in every child

God Bless


PS : Recently a close friend shared an opportunity 'to make a difference'. It was to support the musical talent of two boys, from economically poor background. My first thought was, I must confess, 'should we not support the basic necessities, rather than support their extra-curricular aspirations?', though I remain an eternally aspiring to become a singer !!

Then, I realised, 'who am I to judge?' I shared with few of my friends, who were inclined towards music, et al, who may be keen to take up this (cheque-book) philanthrophy opportunity :)

One of them came forward & picked up the entire opportunity ! But the thought remained, 'should we not support the roti/kapada/makaan/education & health of the needy children?'

Watching the painting competetion in 'Tare Zameer Par', I realised : For a child who loves painting, colors & canvass are more important than anything else. Similarly, for these two boys who are musically inclined, 'sapta-swaras' (7 notes of music) are more important than anything else.

Afterall, The Lord is GANA-PRIYA!

Indeed, 'The world is still waiting for my SSpiritual intelligence to grow' !!

Blissfully.

Steve Jobs, Spiritually

In final weeks, Jobs managed his farewells

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-final-weeks-jobs-managed-his-farewells/857213/0

Steve managed his farewells also very well... true to his style

• he said the experience of parenting was '10,000 better than anything else he did'
• an extremely private person, Steve surprisingly allowed an authorised biography, because he wanted his children to know him... 

PS : I am doing some of these posts on Steve, purely for posterity... also for my son! Indeed, parenting is second best thing to happen to me !

Fame Hungry Children in TRP Maze

Saw a report how 'fame-hungry children are driving the reality TV boom in India !!

• fame hungry children ?? - surely not children, their parents are fame hungry
• reality TV - if TV is bad, reality TV is sadly bad ! 

I remember the great actor, Kamal Hasan, once mentioning how he missed out on the joy of childhood, as he was an actor already! MJ is perhaps another example. Tiger Woods... ??

We should allow children to be what they are. Help them, facilitate their initiatives, allow them to dream & experiment, support them even if they fail.... A music teacher recently lamented how they are killing music through these programs. Children taste early success and most of them do not go  beyond that... No training or sadhakam.We may not get a Pt Jasraj or MS. S in future, courtesy Reality TV !!

This morning I read The Master's advise to mothers ( parents) : to mould character and give quality education (educare). 
Beyond that, we are depriving children of the joy of childhood.

Sadly, it is all TRP Game !!

* Fame-hungry children driving India's reality TV boom!!!

Countdown to 1 1 11

Wow... what a year it has been... a perfect 10 !

Looking back, it could have been a lot better. But no complaints, at all.

Few thougthts...To start with PARENTING, one of my favourite topics.

When we were kids, everything was linked to 'studies' and of course marks. ( Our folks were exposed to 'nishkama karma' much later :) !) But the restriction was more to the amount of time for playing! Much later, kids were restricted to the amount of time on TV !
According to a recent report, parents have started linking to amount of time on internet ....

Too much of anything is bad

I have a nagging feeling, I am spending too much time on my computer/phone... on the verge of becoming an E-DDICT! ( addicted to e-world)

Partly because of work. Personally, I am into a bit of blogging, gmail/ymail. Low on Facebook/Linked in/alumni portal. A passive presence on Twitter/Buzz. I am on linked-in for professional reasons, and on social NW sites just to be in touch with friends...Those were the days when we would actually write letters to friends...I used to write quite a few...

The impact of too much time on e-world may end up 'infanstalising the 21st century mind', says the article.Check out this link
Are we too switched on for our own good? ( check out this link)

How do we get out ? The author says, 'digital detox, fast ....imagine', etc.
Manage time better, consciously switch-off...I am tempted to add, Meditate...be Ssspiritual 

Loving Tribute to my dad

I am usually critical to all these fundas of 'days', which is more western influence...Valentine day, father/mother day, etc.
But, in this fast-paced life, it is good to remember, with love and gratitude, our parents, teachers, at times... Of course, need to be Ssspiritually conscious of God, always!

I plan to write a book on my relationship with my dad. As a child, he was terror. As I grew up, he was more approachable. Once I hit teens, he became a friend. The respectful distance always remained between us, but we were close in a way we would not exhibit. Me as a youngster, and himself as a career-faugi!

I have learnt so many things from him...and try to emulate him.

• family- first. He made it a point to be in contact with all relatives/siblings, friends,etc, but his family came first. 
• compassion - for people around him, not just family, but beyond
• discipline, time management, etc -being career-fauji, it came naturally to him. 
• passion for fitness 
• he inspired me to stay away from alcohol, as he was a tea-totaller, in spite of being in army & CSD...Seeing his addiction to smoking, I resolved to stay away from cigarettes. 
• his style of parenting was not by preaching, but by practise and setting example ( something I 'try' with my son!)
• reading habit -my passion for letters and blogging, is something rubbed off from him.

 He is no more...we miss him. But he lives in our lives....

Role Model

One of our fundamental responsibility as a parent to our children is to inculcate in them the right value system. A friend uses a more appropriate term, 'SANSKAR'! How true... !


This should be done by not preaching, but by practicing. But we forget this and try to preach than being a role model. Just practise !

Vishy Anand is World Champ yet again

Indian cricket team plays their do-or-die match at T20 world cup... they also need to pray for a favourable result at Aus Vs WI...

No such confusion elsewhere in Hungary. Champion of Champs, Vishy, won his fourth title. He proves he is one of the greatest sportsman from India. That too in a game which is all brains, and no brawn :)  The cricket crazy public back home will be too busy talking & intellectualizing about the fate of MSD & team...

Vishy's mother wants him to be a champion and also a good human being... Great lesson on parenting

In this era when sport and sportsman hitting a new low at individual and collective level, we have Vishy and Sachin. Proud of them !

Messi- the greatest ?

We have been lucky to be part of a generation which had Maradona, Borg, Sunny Gavaskar, Jehangir Khan, Geet Sethi,  Padukone ( a personal favourite!)... earlier. Then, Tiger Woods, Federer, Messi, Sachin, et al. And no 'generation gap' here... We have been very fortunate.

The latest debate : Is Messi the greatest of all times ?
It is human weakness to make comparisons - at office ( hence the rat-race), at school/college and in the social circle. We are never satisfied the way we are... or the way others are. We make comparisons, which are usually unfair, as we do with our children.

Messi, is definitely going up the curve, for sure. He has all the ingredients of a Genius Blossoming. Ardiles think so. He says, Messi, unlike my favourite Maradona, ' is more focussed & much calmer...well protected by his family'. He also adds, 'you would never find him at a night club...a perfect boy'.


Tiger Woods is back in action. I love the golfer and happy he is back with a bang!
Nike has release a new ad ( though shot sometime back) featuring Tiger.  Not happy about it!

Earth Hour 2010 I did lip service too....

Last year, I did observe Earth Hour, with limited enthu. But I had decided 2010 will be different and surely, better.

Couple of weeks back, saw 'Earth Hour pop-up' on my gmail. I clicked, enrolled... then I realized I was on their Canada-sector :) Neverthless, I continued to receive email from them. That enabled me to make pleas on my Twitter, Facebook and blog... I tried word of mouth too... This morning, I sent a quick reminder to most of my email contacts... None responded...yet ! Makes me wonder, is it all worth it ?? Perhaps on a Sat evening, people are busy with their week-end plans !!! How many of us really care for our environment ?!!!

As I stepped out of office, I remembered to switch off the light. I made it a point to remind the cleaning team, to switch off the lights after they finish. 

When I walked back home (yes, 'walk'!) I saw the lights were already on. Again, made me wonder... living almost in the middle of desert, urbanised surely, we have too much of 'light pollution'. Same is the case with most urbanised landscape...The lights in corridors of our buildings are always on. I never miss an opportunity to switch off the lights during day time, only to find them 'on' almost immediately ! The awareness is low or may be we don't care...

Dada and KKR made a come back, finally at IPL3. I wonder, why the sole match was not scheduled at 4 PM IST, instead of 8 PM. There was no way to switch off lights at 830 PM, during the match. And IPL3 has been prominently paying lip-service to GO GREEN too... ! 

A friend here has opted out of the whole things saying 'earth has a natural mechanism to correct, by natural disasters, etc. Why bother?'... Interesting !


Another friend laments... 'we have switched off most of it, except A/c and TV. Family wants to watch a bollywood flick'! He was helpless...


As the clock hit 830 PM, I was out on an 'important' work - to take my son to get his xbox repaired, a long pending promise. I found the shops were no way near the 'earth hour'. ON way back, asked the laundry guy, 'why not switch off couple of lights'. He says there was a common switch for all the three lights! And why bother, the malls and other big buildings are switching off and saving a lot of power...he feels his participation was insignificant. Tragedy, a lot others think same too... !


All I could do was to get back, switch off as much possible and get into the evening prayer-mode. Escapist ? May be... The world does not seem to care and when you are helpless, prayer & meditation are the best options. 


Samastha Loka Sukhino Bhavanthu...

Tiger Woods to Return

Another TV news item that caught my attention while 'on tour' was Tiger Woods' return to Golf...

Like many other die-hard fans of Tiger, I have allowed him to drift away from list of Greats. It must be 'freedom' for many of us, also for him. Like many others, I now feel sorry for him. And now it is more of sympathty. Let us hope he is able to come out of it and focus on Golf, with Arjun (mahabharatha fame)-like focus, dedication and character. Of course, he needs a friend, philospher, guide and GOD, just as Arjun had Sri Krishna. As such, it is good to note he is 'going back' to his Buddhism, meditation.
  

Woods has long been connected to Buddhism through his Thai mother and he said his detachment from the religion had been behind his fall from grace.

"Going against your core values, losing sight of it," he said when asked how he lost control of his life. "I quit meditating, I quit being a Buddhist, and my life changed upside down.

"I felt entitled, which I had never felt before. Consequently, I hurt so many people by my own reckless attitude and behavior."  ( Courtesy : http://gulfnews.com/sport/golf/tiger-woods-returns-to-buddhism-1.601495  

3 Idiots

Amir Khan is an actor who has given us some great movies..

• Taare Zameen par, would have helped many a parent to be more sensitive 
• Dil Chahta hai, prompted me to re-connect with some of my good, old friends
• Rang De Basanti, made many urban youth to be more aware of  common issues around us
• Lagaan... etc.

So, I waited for the initial response of his (now, not so) new film, 3 Idiots. I was confident he would ensure quality, as he has done in the recent past ( did not like his Gajini, personally though). The feedback from friends was 'must watch'! Got to watch last week...

Though the movie was 'inspired by' one of Chetan Bhagat's books( my favourite among all by him), I felt the controversy could have been avoided.
It does take a comic look at the hostel life, our parental pressure to become an engineer/doc and of course, on learning by rote in our educational system. ( CBSE's recent decision to do away with board exam is in the right direction, finally....)Most of us have different memories about all these three aspects.

I was fortunate to be in hostels, in 9th & 10th and then for the management degree. I rate both these stages of  my life as two most important milestones in my personal life... For what I am today, I owe a lot to these two stages of life. (More about it, later for 'autobiography'!) So, only very pleasant memories of hostel life.( No ragging experince either, thank God)

Career: All of us, who belong to the middle class category, would have felt similar experiences. My mom wanted me to become a teacher - as respectable, decent income and lots of vacations. Dad wanted me to follow his footsteps to fauji ( army) initially. I was not in favour of army, as I wanted 'freedom' and  better 'earning potential' ( wanted to reach financial stability, unlike many faujis). Then, he wanted me to become ....yes.... an engineer ! I did not get very high grade in engineering entrance and I would do only computer science or electronics, nothing else. So, I dumped that stream and hit Commerce and became a banker.... I never had the engineering bend-of-mind, though I was good at Maths & Physics. Fortunately, parents supported my crazy career ideas ( for 1980's). Not many parents were/are in that league, for sure... Kudos to Amir for bringing out this important aspect of our lives...

And, Freedom & financial stability, is very relative... 'everything is in mind'! I feel we should encourage our children to pursue a career of their interest and passion and be best in that field.Then they will not 'work', it becomes fun...

Learning by rote is perhaps one of the fundamental flaws of our educational system. Lot of my friends feel otherwise, and are in favour of all the thrust on memorising and pressurizing children in their school days. Though I don't blindly support the western model, we need to modify our educational system to enable our children realise their potential. I was at the receiving end as I was very bad in memorising, hence such strong views.

What I admire about Amir Khan is his passion for work. His passion can be seen & felt even by even a movie-goer. His ad campaigns ( titan, tata sky, paanch ke barabar coke ad, etc) were different. His 'athithi devo bhava'/Incredible India! campaigns are very timely and relevant. Was glad to hear he is a voracious reader and almost a fitness freak. Of course he is a fellow blogger, and all comparisons end there :)

Character in Leadership

The story of Tiger's personal life has come as a big shock to all his fans, world over.

I always felt celebrities, just like us common people, have the right to privacy. But, once you are on public domain, you are subject to scrutiny, rightly or not. I wonder how such great achievers miss out on this important aspect of life, 'character' ! We have heard of so many people and their deviations from the 'prescribed path'. Is it due to the upbringing, society, situations, education, value-system... ? Master says, THE END OF EDUCATION IS CHARACTER

Personally, Tiger 'has' been closest to human greatness in sport. As a child, we always wanted to excel in our favourite sport (not golf though). But the change he has brought to the game, apart from his personal achievements, is what makes him truly great. In my office, I have a small model of what I would like to be ( from one of the training programs): a  Teacher ( profession), a restaurant owner, a singer, or a Tiger Woods! To achieve greatness in one's own chosen field ( usually we are in a particular profession by accident, not by choice) and to give more to the profession than take !


We need not be guided by these so-called great people, not bench-mark against them. But aspire simple greatness, in a holistic sense... That is Spiritual & closer to Divine, man being crown of God's creations

Winning generates momentum, but character sustains it. Tiger's story is a cautionary tale about character. http://www.giantimpact.com/articles/read/character_the_key_to_sustaining_momentum/

Parenting

Came across a report on Dubai Airshow...sharing thoughts not on the actual air-show, but a related report on GOOD PARENTING !

Massimo Tammaro is a happy man.. as a child he dreamt of flying. At 41 he is just doing that, and enjoying every bit of it. He thinks he was 'lucky'... He attributes the secret behind being a successful fighter pilot to : a combination of a God given gift and his mothers good parenting.


Source - Gulfnews

Life is a Game...

My son sent a sms checking if he could buy a computer-game... I was in the middle of something serious at office... and he was seeking permission after his shopping for clothes, a MJ CD, etc. I replied, 'LIFE IS A GAME, PLAY IT.... BIG!

He would have expected a prompt & simple, Yes or No...Usually I say 'Yes', unless it is a real unreasonable demand. It was more due to my frame of mind, that I responded so...I was not in favour of a 'Yes' and as always, reluctant to say 'No'

Part of my value system as a parent, minimise the number of 'NO' to the child. I am conscious to ensure he does not take advantage of it...

He did not give up, asked for the meaning of the phrase. How can anyone explain through SMS

how life is a game, that we have no choice but to play ( can't be mere spectator)
how critical it is to play it well,to the potential and the right/fair way... and
how to play BIG! A Sachin/Tiger/Federer in this game too...that is minimum benchmark.

Keep Playing!

Frisking of Dr Kalam

I got some reactions about my earlier post... it was evident many people are upset about the whole episode. For 'frisking our former pres'/'humiliating a great soul such as Dr Kalaam'/'for doing that to an Indian,South Asian,racist'/'biased'/etc.
I was surprised at Continental's earlier stand, 'it is our policy'!! And their reluctance to be empathetic to the feelings of the Indians, their customers, current or potential!!
Now, they have come up with a feeble apology, perhaps more due to the outcry.

Let us put this behind ourselves and focus on more important issues. One such issue is the hot debate in Karnataka - making kannada official medium in primary schools and SC's timely and appropriate intervention. Thanks to SC for that.
If we really love and respect living legends like Dr Kalam, let us handle issues close to his heart better: children's education as part of his Vision 2020 for India

Our Pet Fussy2

Make over of our Fussy2 :)

Check snaps, bottom up...SMILE. !

Pet Airways

Now our beloved pets can 'fly in the main cabin, not in cargo' ! How sweet !

My earlier pet-dog, travelled with us from Hyderabad-Ottapalam-Trivandrum-Mangalore-Neemuch(MP). All travels in train, cargo div. At end of each journey, she would have fallen ill, minor though.

If Pet Airways start in India, as a affordable airlines, it would help so many pet-owners. It also rhymes with JET airways... they could do a brand extension too... PETA must be happy ! Three cheers to the people behind PA... ensure five-star service...

check out commercial : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc2lvz1LGTc

Fussy, My pet dog

Some snaps... by popular demand (Nazar mat lagana)